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Chapter 23
Previous Chapter More than a few people saw the beams of black light from Silvia's and Worth's fight, and Dan was one of them. Hearing about another killing on the news, Dan decided he'd rather throw himself back into conflict and violence than deal with the turmoil of his own mind. He headed towards the museum at first, changing directions when he saw the black energy waves out of the corner of his eye. But as the lights subsided, he grew wary, approaching more cautiously. As he circled around, he encountered something unexpected. A young man in casual clothes stepped out of a sleek black car. He exchanged some words with the curly-haired driver, who pointed at an abandoned hotel down the street before she drove off. He looked at it for a moment, but then suddenly went rigid. He slowly turned to face Dan, who had been staring intently at him with a vicious smile creeping up the side of his face. The man who stepped out of a AX Corp company car was Kaz. Kaz didn't know Dan, and Dan didn't know Kaz. They were the only people on this unusually empty street. From Kaz's point of view, he was on a job to retrieve a sword from a madman, and found someone who looked plenty crazy. On Dan's side, he was looking for a killer who most likely had powers (due to the beams he saw earlier), and had such eyes that he couldn't help but perceive the air seeming to cling to and gently wrap around Kaz's very presence. Dan immediately summoned a pistol and fired. Kaz flipped to the side to avoid said gunfire. "Wha?! Why are you shooting at me?" Kaz asked in surprise. "Are you after the sword?" Dan ignored him and continued firing. "Hey! Stop shooting and answer me already!" After being ignored again, Kaz finally retaliated by launching a speeding blade of compressed air. In all honesty, the ensuing fight was Dan's fault for snapping off a few bullets without pausing to ask questions. It was questionable whether Dan was actually thinking about anything other than his own stress relief when he attacked, considering he was still ticked from losing his memories and being stalked by a unknown cloaked figure. The shearing wind cut dangerously close to Dan's face as he ducked and weaved, feeling shallow scratches on his cheek. Metal parts had already started forming and coming together in his left hand, but he still needed a few more seconds for it to finish. Dan continued firing one-handed, accepting a drop in his accuracy. It didn't matter much, as Kaz was much more experienced in combat, intentionally luring Dan into leading his shots, and then pulling back before the rounds would have hit. Shooting at him in midair didn't work either; the swift wind-wielder sprang from side to side with ease, or else released a gust just strong enough to make the measly handgun bullets miss. Kaz's wind blades were evaded too, but less gracefully, with Dan rolling behind mailboxes and cars, and once by throwing his pistol at the blade to slow it enough to dodge. He threw his gun? Kaz wondered for just a heartbeat, his eyes widening. Kaz had simply assumed that Dan quick-drew his pistol, not realizing that he created it in the blink of an eye. However, the object coming together in Dan's left hand was finally taking on a recognizable shape. Dan clasped his right hand onto the grip and slotted his finger through the trigger guard, bringing the rifle's stock up to his shoulder. It was a little different from his usual sniper rifle, being shorter and smaller, without the scope or bipod attachments. Kaz's eyes bulged even more as the rifle rattled off a three-round burst. A blast of wind hurled Kaz behind the relative safety of a wall. Those bullets were no joke. They were faster, stronger, more accurate, and carried the wielder's pride... or was it the creator's pride? Either way, there was a spiritual aspect to them that the pistol rounds lacked, though it made little difference against an opponent with a physical body like Kaz. What it did do was convince Kaz to go all out, in case Dan had something bigger to conjure. And yet, there was something in the back of Kaz's mind that told him his opponent wasn't his real enemy. Dan couldn't stop himself from grinning. He was fighting a skilled opponent, with abilities unlike any he had ever seen. The reasons behind the fight had all but disappeared for him, and he no longer cared that he was fighting out in the open, where bystanders might pass by. The only thing that mattered was that his opponent faced him head-on, allowing him to actually shoot at the guy. His grin only widened when Kaz came dashing out of cover engulfed in howling winds, performing an impossibly agile turn that blew up a cloud of dust as he began charging straight at Dan. The rifle came up and fired into the human hurrincane before him. The burst of bullets shredded the wind barrier, but Kaz somehow managed to avoid each and every round. If there was more distance between them, things might have turned out a little differently, but as it was, Kaz had already grasped Dan's pattern of attack, and only had to dodge one spray to reach him. There was no time to level Kaz's advance with a wall of bullets, or to break his stance by forcing him to dodge over and over. It was a good fight. Dan fully enjoyed it. Even if this was the end, his current euphoria told him that it wasn't such a bad way to go. There was no time left to pull out another weapon, not even a knife or pistol. As the storm peeled back to reveal the doom within its eye, Dan could all too clearly see Kaz swing his blade of razor wind in one final sundering motion. Next Chapter